Applications for PWI Brussels’ Mentoring Programme are now open — why should you be involved
We seated with Arsenia, PWI Brussels Director of the Mentoring Progamme, to talk about the importance of mentoring, the added value of our programme and to have a preview of the upcoming wave.
Arsenia Corcoba Santamaria, you are the PWI Brussels Director of the Mentoring Programme and say about yourself that one of the big challenges as a leader is to dare to stay where you are when it feels uncomfortable and to encourage to have courageous conversation. It’s about leading by example by showing your vulnerability and integrity.
You say that it still remains a challenge and it also helps your corporate clients to understand that those kinds of conversations bring them to success.
Now, you are looking for mentees and mentors for our 9th programme wave that kicks off in beginning of December 2018.
Tell us who should participate in the PWI Brussels Mentoring Programme and why?
The programme is for Millennials, Generation X and the Baby Boomers. I still observe in the last Wave 59% of our participants are women that wanted to achieve their life change goal, including promotions and career changes. I also notice those women now want to increase their confidence and courage and to do this they’re conscious about the power of networking and to build alliances. And truly as such, the programme is a precious investment programme to provide additional guidance. It is formal programmes like ours that help women establish senior-level connections that speed up their careers.
PWI brings together a group of experienced and driven women leaders. Our mission is to support those women leaders on their journey. We do not discriminate against age, background and culture. Our mentor/mentee evaluation criteria is based on the capacity and range of their impact, and where the individual is in her career to increase her growth.
For those women and men who want to engage as mentors, what should they be able to offer?
Having access to a mentor is a key driver for success, and sometimes it’s hard to reach out for help and find good mentors. As PWI Brussels we are proud to offer a Mentoring Programme to amazing women leaders that empowers them to grow, and that at a pivotal decision points in their careers, we can help support and guide the careers of women as they progress on their leadership path. In male-dominated professions where women often
face even greater challenges building networks and embracing feminine leadership strengths, mentoring has proven to be even more paramount. For the upcoming wave I also want to call more “men mentors” forth to support women to expand their ways of working up till now and to explore the way of working from new perspectives.
If you want a greater understanding of your strengths, if you need to make a change or take a complex decision, if you want to step up your leadership potential, if you are seeking balance and purpose, one of our mentors can help you.
And what can mentees gain?
There is so much that mentees can get out of programmes like ours! Our mentees improve their professional skills and knowledge, increase their self esteem and lead from their core, receive guidance on making career choices and on strategising how best to achieve objectives, benefit from advice on unwritten rules and insights into the informal politics of organisation
and have a role model who inspires them. They grow in self-confidence, foster the boldness to build networks and to embrace feminine leadership strengths in a minority work environment, and gain awareness around unintended impacts, strengths and weakness up till now and develop their desired impact in their professional day-to-day life.
Our experience in running this programme means that we now have a very solid programme that offers a lot of support: participants will be able to connect and share with like-minded individuals in 28 PWN City Networks worldwide through our network. Our PWI Brussels/PWN Global community is a ready-built support network that will help you achieve your professional aspirations, and adapt to your new cultural environment through a wealth of
practical advice. We have an effective mentoring structure to make sure that you get the most out of your mentoring experience, by calling upon a wide range of mentors, cross-borders and across-industries, ensuring the best possible match.
Tell us, how does the programme work in detail?
A minimum of six mentoring sessions are conducted over six months that are designed and decided upon directly between the mentor and mentee under the guidance of PWI Brussels. We request them to take the time to connect before starting the programme, to run one initial discovery session to define goals, explore values and identify triggers, barriers, and purpose.
These can take place by phone or similar or in person.
There are also three monthly group calls with other mentees of which the first one is mandatory and covers the question how to get the most of your mentoring relationship.
In addition, we curate a private Facebook group and a monthly meet-up meeting to continue deepening the learning and to call forth the other mentees, and have bi-weekly or monthly mentoring sessions to work towards goals and overcoming challenges. We also take the time during the programme to hold the space for a mid-review meeting with the mentees.
The programme is rounded off by a one-hour completion session to reflect on learnings and plan for ongoing self-development.
That means that in summary, mentees receive a total of eight hours of intensive one-on-one mentoring over a period of six months with one of our highly experienced and professional mentors.
How do I get involved?
Simply fill the form (deadline 04/10!)
